Volume 29 Issue 1
Feb.  2019
Turn off MathJax
Article Contents

FENG Yan, WANG Wenling, SUMAN Daniel, YU Shiwei, HE Daming. Water Cooperation Priorities in the Lancang-Mekong River Basin Based on Cooperative Events Since the Mekong River Commission Establishment[J]. Chinese Geographical Science, 2019, 20(1): 58-69. doi: 10.1007/s11769-019-1016-4
Citation: FENG Yan, WANG Wenling, SUMAN Daniel, YU Shiwei, HE Daming. Water Cooperation Priorities in the Lancang-Mekong River Basin Based on Cooperative Events Since the Mekong River Commission Establishment[J]. Chinese Geographical Science, 2019, 20(1): 58-69. doi: 10.1007/s11769-019-1016-4

Water Cooperation Priorities in the Lancang-Mekong River Basin Based on Cooperative Events Since the Mekong River Commission Establishment

doi: 10.1007/s11769-019-1016-4
Funds:  Under the auspices of the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2016YFA0601601), Natural Science Foundation of China-International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (NSFC-ICIMOD) Joint Research Program (No. 41661144044).
More Information
  • Corresponding author: HE Daming.E-mail:dmhe@ynu.edu.cn
  • Received Date: 2018-01-29
  • Rev Recd Date: 2018-04-28
  • Publish Date: 2019-02-01
  • The Lancang-Mekong River has attracted much attention from researchers, but the cooperation on water issues in this river basin has been limited, even after the establishment of the Mekong River Commission (MRC). Cooperation on water resources has been determined as one of the key priority areas in the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Mechanism, but there are no details of targets. In order to establish the priorities of water cooperation under the mechanism, we adopted nine categories to classify the objectives of 87 water cooperation events based on the ‘Lancang-Mekong Water Cooperative Events Database’ from 1995 to 2015. Based on the occurrence of cooperative events, cooperative objectives, cooperative scales, and approaches to cooperation, we conducted statistical, correlation, and text analyses. Our analyses indicated the following results:under the impact of economic conditions inside and outside the river basin, full cooperation appeared more difficult than bilateral and multilateral cooperation. Each of the partners adopted different preferences for cooperation targets. Cooperation with more definite objectives was easier to establish than cooperation with broader and more complex objectives. The potential objectives for water cooperation were navigation, hydropower, joint management, data sharing, flood control and water use. Because hydropower development is controversial, and because water cooperation is avoided by most existing regional cooperation mechanisms due to its complexity, we suggest the following priority areas for water cooperation in the Lancang-Mekong River Basin. 1) Navigation and flood control/drought relief are attractive objectives for all the riparian countries across the whole watershed. 2) Data sharing should be a priority for cooperation in the watershed due to its laying the foundation for the equitable and reasonable utilization of transboundary waters. 3) Hydropower is an objective best implemented mainly through bilateral cooperation, and on tributaries.
  • [1] ASEAN Economic Community, 1996. Basic framework of Asean-Mekong basin development cooperation. Available at http://www.asean.org/wp-content/uploads/images/2013/economic/mbdc/basic%20framework%20of%20ambdc.pdf. 2018-03-27.
    [2] ASEAN Secretariat, 2002. ASEAN-China free trade area. Available at http://investasean.asean.org/index.php/page/view/free-trade-areas/view/734/newsid/776/aseanchina-free-trade-area.html. 2018-04-25.
    [3] ASEAN Secretariat, 2017. Overview of ASEAN plus three coop-eration. Available at http://asean.org/storage/2017/06/Overview-of-APT-Cooperation-Jun-2017.pdf. 2018-03-27.
    [4] Baird I G, 2011. The don Sahong dam:potential impacts on re-gional fish migrations, livelihoods, and human health. Critical Asian Studies, 43(2):211-235. doi:10.1080/14672715.2011. 570567
    [5] Baran E, Ratner B, 2007. The don Sahong dam and Mekong fisheries. World Fish Center. Available at https://www.researchgate.net/publica-tion/227642372_The_Don_Sahong_dam_and_Mekong_fisher-ies. 2017-06-20.
    [6] Baran E, Myschowoda C, 2009. Dams and fisheries in the Me-kong Basin. Aquatic Ecosystem Health & Management, 12(3):227-234. doi: 10.1080/14634980903149902
    [7] Biba S, 2016. China drives water cooperation with Mekong coun-tries. Eco-Business. Available at http://www.eco-business.com/news/china-drives-water-cooperation-with-mekong-countries/. 2017-08-28.
    [8] Bruce G, 2013. Hydropower development in the Mekong basin:perspective of a Canadian private environmental consulting company. Available at http://www.hydronet.umontreal.ca/symposium2013/HydroNet_Symposium_2013_Bruce_G.pdf. 2017-08-30
    [9] Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam Development Triangle Portal, 2016. Introduction of the Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam development tri-angle area. Available at http://clv-development.org/en/Pages/In-troduction_of_Development_Triangle.aspx. 2018-03-27.
    [10] Campbell I C, 2007. Perceptions, data, and river management:lessons from the Mekong River. Water Resources Research, 43(2):W02407. doi: 10.1029/2006WR005130
    [11] de Stefano L, Duncan J, Dinar S et al., 2012. Climate change and the institutional resilience of international river basins. Journal of Peace Research, 49(1):193-209. doi:10.1177/00223433 11427416
    [12] Dugan P J, Barlow C, Agostinho A A et al., 2010. Fish migration, dams, and loss of ecosystem services in the Mekong Basin. Ambio, 39(4):344-348. doi: 10.1007/s13280-010-0036-1
    [13] Eidem N T, Fesler K J, Wolf A T, 2012. Intranational cooperation and conflict over freshwater:examples from the western United States. Journal of Contemporary Water Research & Education, 147(1):63-71. doi:10.1111/j.1936-704X.2012. 03103.x
    [14] Feng Yan, He Daming, Bao Haosheng, 2000. Study on the equi-table and suitable allocation model of water resources in the Lancang-Mekong River Basin. Journal of Natural Resources, 15(3):241-245. (in Chinese)
    [15] Ferguson J W, Healey M, Dugan P et al., 2011. Potential effects of dams on migratory fish in the Mekong river:lessons from salmon in the Fraser and Columbia rivers. Environmental Management, 47(1):141-159. doi: 10.1007/s00267-010-9563-6
    [16] Friend R M, Blake D J H, 2009. Negotiating trade-offs in water resources development in the Mekong Basin:implications for fisheries and fishery-based livelihoods. Water Policy, 11(S1):13-30. doi: 10.2166/wp.2009.001
    [17] Fu K D, He D M, Lu X X, 2008. Sedimentation in the Manwan reservoir in the Upper Mekong and its downstream impacts. Quaternary International, 186(1):91-99. doi:10.1016/j.quaint. 2007.09.041
    [18] Global Water Partnership, 2012. The Handbook for Integrated Water Resources Management in Transboundary Basins of Rivers, Lakes and Aquifers. Elanders:GWP, INBO.
    [19] Government of India, 2017. About Mekong-ganga cooperation (MGC). Available at http://www.mea.gov.in/aseanindia/about-mgc.htm. 2018-04-25.
    [20] Greater Mekong Subregion Secretariat, 2018. About the greater Mekong Subregion:overview. greater Mekong Subregion. Available at https://www.greatermekong.org/about. 2018-04-24
    [21] Guen-Murray J, Haque M, Lichtefeld J, 2017. The future shape of Mekong cooperation:a closer look at the paths ahead for the Mekong river commission. Available at https://thediplomat.com/2017/09/the-future-shape-of-mekong-cooperation/. 2018-03-28.
    [22] Halls A S, Kshatriya M, 2009. Modelling the Cumulative Barrier and Passage Effects of Mainstream Hydropower Dams on Mi-gratory Fish Populations in the Lower Mekong Basin. MRC Technical Paper No. 25, Vientiane:Mekong River Commission.
    [23] Ho S, 2014. River politics:China's policies in the Mekong and the Brahmaputra in comparative perspective. Journal of Con-temporary China, 23(85):1-20. doi:10.1080/10670564. 2013.809974
    [24] Hoanh C T, Jirayoot K, Lacombe G et al., 2010. Impacts of climate change and development on Mekong flow regimes:first assessment-2009. Mekong River Commission. Available at http://www.mrcmekong.org/assets/Publications/technical/tech-No29-impact-of-climate-change.pdf. 2017-07-25.
    [25] ICEM, 2010. MRC Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) of Hydropower on the Mekong Mainstream. Hanoi:Mekong River Commission.
    [26] Ioannides M J, Tilt B, 2017. China:lessons learned from the Manwan dam. Case study series on dam displacement. Geneva, Switzerland:Internal Displacement Monitoring Center. Available at http://www.internal-displacement.org/assets/publications/2017/20170411-idmc-china-dam-case-study.pdf. 2018-03-27.
    [27] Kang B, He D M, Perrett L et al., 2009. Fish and fisheries in the Upper Mekong:current assessment of the fish community, threats and conservation. Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisher-ies, 19(4):465-480. doi: 10.1007/s11160-009-9114-5
    [28] Kingston D G, Thompson J R, Kite G, 2011. Uncertainty in climate change projections of discharge for the Mekong River Basin. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 15(5):1459-1471. doi: 10.5194/hess-15-1459-2011
    [29] Kummu M, Varis O, 2007. Sediment-related impacts due to up-stream reservoir trapping, the Lower Mekong River. Geomor-phology, 85(3-4):275-293. doi:10.1016/j.geomorph.2006. 03.024
    [30] Lauri H, de Moel H, Ward P J et al., 2012. Future changes in Mekong River hydrology:impact of climate change and res-ervoir operation on discharge. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 16(12):4603-4619. doi: 10.5194/hess-16-4603-2012
    [31] Lower Mekong Initiative, 2017. The Lower Mekong Initiative (LMI). Available at https://www.lowermekong.org/about/lower-mekong-initiative-lmi. 2018-04-25.
    [32] Lu X X, Siew R Y, 2006. Water discharge and sediment flux changes over the past decades in the Lower Mekong River:possible impacts of the Chinese dams. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 10(2):181-195. doi: 10.5194/hessd-2-2287-2005
    [33] Lu X X, Li S Y, Kummu M et al., 2014. Observed changes in the water flow at Chiang Saen in the lower Mekong:impacts of Chinese dams? Quaternary International, 336:145-157. doi: 10.1016/j.quaint.2014.02.006
    [34] Lü Yusheng, Shen Dehai, 2014-2015. China-ASEAN Yearbook 2014-2015. Beijing:Thread-Binding Books Publishing House. (in Chinese)
    [35] Mekong River Commission (MRC), 2017. About MRC. http://www.mrcmekong.org/about-mrc/. 2017-10-19.
    [36] Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, 2009. Tokyo declaration of the first meeting between the heads of the governments of Japan and the Mekong region countries. Available at http://www.mofa.go.jp/region/asia-paci/mekong/summit0911/declaration.html. 2018-04-25.
    [37] Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the People's Republic of China, 2016. The 2nd Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Foreign Ministers' Meeting Convenes. Available at http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/zxxx_662805/t1427021.shtml. 2018-04-25.
    [38] Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the People's Republic of China, 2018. Li Keqiang Attends the 2nd LMC Leaders' Meeting. Available at http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/zxxx_662805/t1525244.shtml. 2018-01-15.
    [39] MRC, 2008. Flood Situation Report. MRC Technical Paper No. 21, Vientiane:Mekong River Commission.
    [40] MRC, 2010. State of the Basin Report 2010. Vientiane:Mekong River Commission.
    [41] Räsänen T A, Koponen J, Lauri H et al., 2012. Downstream hy-drological impacts of hydropower development in the upper Mekong basin. Water Resources Management, 26(12):3495-3513. doi: 10.1007/s11269-012-0087-0
    [42] Ratner B D, 2003. The politics of regional governance in the Mekong river basin. Global Change, Peace & Security, 15(1):59-76. doi: 10.1080/0951274032000044522
    [43] Roberts T R, 2004. Fluvicide:an independent environmental as-sessment of Nam Theun 2 hydropower project in Laos, with particular reference to aquatic biology and fishes. Available at https://www.internationalrivers.org/sites/default/files/attached-files/tysonfluvicide0904.pdf. 2017-06-30.
    [44] Roset N, Grenouillet G, Goffaux D et al., 2007. A review of ex-isting fish assemblage indicators and methodologies. Fisheries Management and Ecology, 14(6):393-405. doi:10.1111/j. 1365-2400.2007.00589.x
    [45] Son J, 2017. Mekong cooperation, China-style. Reporting ASEAN. Available at https://www.aseannews.net/mekong-cooperation-china-style/. 2017-10-02.
    [46] Stone R, 2011. Mayhem on the Mekong. Science, 333(6044):814-818. doi: 10.1126/science.333.6044.814
    [47] Thailand International Cooperation Agency, 2013. Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-Mekong economic cooperation strategy (ACMECS). Available at http://tica.thaigov.net/main/en/aid/40616-Ayeyawady-Chao-Phraya-Mekong-Economic-Cooperation.html. 2018-04-25
    [48] The Hague Institute for Global Justice, 2016. The Multi-Track Water Diplomacy Framework. Hague:The Hague Institute for Global Justice.
    [49] Thorne C, Annandale G, Jensen J et al., 2011. Review of Sediment Transport, Morphology, and Nutrient Balance. Report to the Mekong River Commission Secretariat Prepared as Part of the Xayaburi Mrcs Prior Consultation Project Review Report. Nottingham, UK:Nottingham University.
    [50] UNEP, 2016. Transboundary River Basins:Status and Trends. Nairobi:United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
    [51] United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, 2014. Inte-grated Water Resources Management in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia. New York and Geneva:United Nations.
    [52] UN-Water, 2015. Good practices in transboundary water coopera-tion. Available at http://www.unece.org/.2018-03-26.
    [53] Wang J J, Lu X X, Kummu M, 2011. Sediment load estimates and variations in the Lower Mekong River. River Research and Applications, 27(1):33-46. doi: 10.1002/rra.1337
    [54] Wang Q Y, 2015. Six countries agree on Mekong cooperation system. China Daily. Available at http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/. 2017-07-30.
    [55] Wolf A T, Yoffe S B, Giordano M, 2003. International waters:identifying basins at risk. Water Policy, 5(1):29-60. doi: 10.2166/wp.2003.0002
    [56] Xinhua, 2015. Joint declaration issued to enhance Mekong river security. Available at http://www.china.org.cn/world/2015-10/25/content_36884092.htm. 2017-07-30.
    [57] Xu Honggang, Bao Jigang, Zhou Changchun, 2006. Effectiveness of regional tourism integration:case of quadrangle economic cooperation zone in great Mekong region. Chinese Geograph-ical Science, 16(2):141-147. doi: 10.1007/s11769-006-0008-3
    [58] Yorth B, 2014. International Mekong River Basin:Events, Con-flicts or Cooperation, and Policy Implications. Oregon:Oregon State University.
    [59] Yu X Z, 2015. Water resources collaboration:potential flagship in Lancang-Mekong cooperation mechanism. Available at https://wle-mekong.cgiar.org/water-resources-collaboration-potential-flagship-in-lancang-mekong-cooperation-mechanism/. 2017-07-30.
    [60] Zhang Yong, He Daming, Lu Ying et al., 2013. The influence of large dams building on resettlement in the Upper Mekong River. Journal of Geographical Sciences, 23(5):947-957. doi: 10.1007/s11442-013-1054-2
    [61] Ziv G, Baran E, Nam S et al., 2012. Trading-off fish biodiversity, food security, and hydropower in the Mekong River Basin. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 109(15):5609-5614. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1201423109
  • 加载中
通讯作者: 陈斌, bchen63@163.com
  • 1. 

    沈阳化工大学材料科学与工程学院 沈阳 110142

  1. 本站搜索
  2. 百度学术搜索
  3. 万方数据库搜索
  4. CNKI搜索

Article Metrics

Article views(394) PDF downloads(649) Cited by()

Proportional views
Related

Water Cooperation Priorities in the Lancang-Mekong River Basin Based on Cooperative Events Since the Mekong River Commission Establishment

doi: 10.1007/s11769-019-1016-4
Funds:  Under the auspices of the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2016YFA0601601), Natural Science Foundation of China-International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (NSFC-ICIMOD) Joint Research Program (No. 41661144044).
    Corresponding author: HE Daming.E-mail:dmhe@ynu.edu.cn

Abstract: The Lancang-Mekong River has attracted much attention from researchers, but the cooperation on water issues in this river basin has been limited, even after the establishment of the Mekong River Commission (MRC). Cooperation on water resources has been determined as one of the key priority areas in the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Mechanism, but there are no details of targets. In order to establish the priorities of water cooperation under the mechanism, we adopted nine categories to classify the objectives of 87 water cooperation events based on the ‘Lancang-Mekong Water Cooperative Events Database’ from 1995 to 2015. Based on the occurrence of cooperative events, cooperative objectives, cooperative scales, and approaches to cooperation, we conducted statistical, correlation, and text analyses. Our analyses indicated the following results:under the impact of economic conditions inside and outside the river basin, full cooperation appeared more difficult than bilateral and multilateral cooperation. Each of the partners adopted different preferences for cooperation targets. Cooperation with more definite objectives was easier to establish than cooperation with broader and more complex objectives. The potential objectives for water cooperation were navigation, hydropower, joint management, data sharing, flood control and water use. Because hydropower development is controversial, and because water cooperation is avoided by most existing regional cooperation mechanisms due to its complexity, we suggest the following priority areas for water cooperation in the Lancang-Mekong River Basin. 1) Navigation and flood control/drought relief are attractive objectives for all the riparian countries across the whole watershed. 2) Data sharing should be a priority for cooperation in the watershed due to its laying the foundation for the equitable and reasonable utilization of transboundary waters. 3) Hydropower is an objective best implemented mainly through bilateral cooperation, and on tributaries.

FENG Yan, WANG Wenling, SUMAN Daniel, YU Shiwei, HE Daming. Water Cooperation Priorities in the Lancang-Mekong River Basin Based on Cooperative Events Since the Mekong River Commission Establishment[J]. Chinese Geographical Science, 2019, 20(1): 58-69. doi: 10.1007/s11769-019-1016-4
Citation: FENG Yan, WANG Wenling, SUMAN Daniel, YU Shiwei, HE Daming. Water Cooperation Priorities in the Lancang-Mekong River Basin Based on Cooperative Events Since the Mekong River Commission Establishment[J]. Chinese Geographical Science, 2019, 20(1): 58-69. doi: 10.1007/s11769-019-1016-4
Reference (61)

Catalog

    /

    DownLoad:  Full-Size Img  PowerPoint
    Return
    Return